Point of Originby Patricia Cornwell

As in the previous mysteries in this series, Dr. Kay Scarpetta's villainous murderers always seem to come back to haunt her. In Point of Origin, Kay, the chief medical examiner in Virginia, is about to take a respite from the gore and violence of her job and holiday with her lover, Benton Wesley, a former FBI profiler. Cornwell fans know, however, that Scarpetta is never going to have a fulfilling or even normal personal life...there are just too many demented murderers on the loose and they keep contacting Scarpetta.

In this, the 9th book in the series, it is Carrie Grethen who Scarpetta had helped send to a locked down mental hospital for her involvement in a murder spree that is back as Scarpetta's nemesis. Grethen, who appeared in Cornwell's book, The Body Farm, is on the loose and she is not only a criminal, but she was also once the lesbian lover of Scarpetta's unusually brilliant young niece, Lucy. As you can see, this book has more interwoven plot lines than Harris has tweeds.

The novel has the usual attention to the details of forensic crimes and, admittedly, they are sometimes so gory that readers might hope for a little less reality. Scarpetta is challenged with sifting through clues of murders involving three fires that have been deliberately set to cover some chilling crime scenes. Past and present collide in a plot that is filled with some pretty deceiving twists and turns along the way. It's another winner for this best-selling mystery author.